


Before & After (and then some)

by footprintsonthemoon



Series: barry allen: the adorable teenage speedster [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types, The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Barry Whump, Dad Bruce Wayne, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Barry Allen, Hurt/Comfort, mostly just mentions of injuries, piece of shit hal jordan, there's not much violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-15 03:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12312981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/footprintsonthemoon/pseuds/footprintsonthemoon
Summary: Barry Allen's life before and after Bruce Wayne adopted him.





	Before & After (and then some)

**_Before:_ **

Barry tried to hide his grimace as he stood with the rest of the League. They had just finished fighting Lex Luthor and whatever robots he had made in his latest to attempt to take down Superman… or something like that. Honestly, Barry hadn’t really paid attention to the explanation Batman had given him, he just knew what to fight.  

“Amazing battle, it was truly a team effort,” GL spoke, hovering off the ground slightly. “But I vote that we have debrief tomorrow as it is past midnight I had just ordered Thai food before the alert went off, and now that’s probably cold, but still just as delicious.”

Barry thought about sitting through a debrief with his cracked (broken?) ribs, possible minor concussion, and various lacerations and bruises.

“I second that.” Barry agreed, hoping no one noticed how stiffly he was holding himself.

Batman glared at him (but Batman glared at literally everyone so he just ignored it).

“Fine.” He spoke. “Debrief tomorrow at seven pm.”

Hal let out a whoop and flew off, yelling something that sounded suspiciously like “later losers.” Barry let out a small laugh, regretting it almost immediately as it agitated his injured ribs. Batman gave him a suspicious look.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Barry said before speeding off, trying not to think about the look Batman had given him.

Once he had changed out of his suit and snuck into his foster parent’s house, he opened the loose floorboard in his room. He pulled out his makeshift first aid kit he had been building up over the past year or so. He didn’t use it all that often, his healing was normally too fast, but his ribs _hurt_ and he thought it couldn’t make anything worse to wrap them for the night.

He pulled off his shirt and winced at all the bruises that were in various states of healing on his chest and torso. He winced as he pulled the gauze tightly around his ribs. He taped it up he was done, put his first aid kit back in his hiding place, and laid down gently on his bed.

Barry blinked back his tears and ignored the feeling of how terribly, utterly _alone_ he felt.

**_After:_ **

Barry felt the broken concrete press into his back where he laid on the ground, trying to catch his breath. They had been fighting something… aliens maybe? He wasn’t sure, the enemy dropped out of the sky and started to attack Metropolis, and three hours later Barry was laying on his back trying to catch his breath after the battle had ended.

As he laid there he took notice of all his injuries. His head was throbbing, his right arm was sluggishly dripping blood, and he was pretty sure his left ankle was twisted, if not broken. He closed his eyes, telling himself he’d lie there for one more minute. He wasn’t injured enough not to get up, he was just tired. The broken concrete wasn’t the worst thing he had ever laid on.

“Flash!” He heard someone shout, followed by pounding footprints.

He opened his eyes to see Bruce kneeling beside him, his gloved hand reaching out towards him.

“B?” He asked, starting to sit up.

“Thank God,” Bruce breathed. “I thought- it looked like…”

“I’m fine B. Well, mostly fine.”

“You’re hurt?” He asked, eyes narrowing. “Where?”

“I’m okay B, really. I’ll just go patch myself up-“

“No,” Bruce cut him off. “Come on, let’s go back to the cave. Agent A can patch you up.”

Bruce helped him to his feet and put an arm around Barry, helping him over to where the Batmobile was hidden. Barry leaned into Bruce a little, a feeling of warmth spreading throughout him.

(He ignored Hal chuckling in the background over “Daddy Bats” and Clark subsequently cuffing him in the back of the head.)

**_Before:_ **

Barry woke up screaming. His blue eyes were wide open and his breathing was labored. He took in the sights of his barren bedroom and calmed down. He was fine. He sat up and pushed his sweaty blonde locks out of his face.

“Barry!” Mark’s voice rang out. “Don’t you move!”

Barry tensed as took in his slurred words and the heavy footsteps coming his way. His door busted open and Mark stumbled into the room.

“I was trying to watch TV boy, and I heard you screaming.” He came closer and Barry scooted farther towards the wall.

Mark grabbed Barry’s chin roughly and narrowed his eyes.

“I don’t want to come home from working all day to support your ass and have my TV time interrupted by your screaming.”

“I-I’m sorry,” He whispered. “It was- was a nightmare. I didn’t mean to.”

Mark looked at him for another second before releasing his grip on his jaw. Barry relaxed slightly, right before he slapped him across the face.

“Better not happen again.” He growled before stumbling out of the room.

Barry closed his eyes as his tears started to drip out. He wrapped his thin sheets around his shaking form and tried as hard as he could to muffle his cries.

**_After:_ **

_“Why were you sneaking in late Barry?” Mark sneered, looming over Barry._

_“I just got caught up with my friends, I-I didn’t realize the time.”_

_“Like anyone would be friends with a freak like you,” He scoffed. “Now tell me the real reason why you were coming in after curfew.”_

_Barry pressed his mouth into a thin line. He couldn’t tell him he was in a League meeting._

_“I guess I’ll just have to get the answer out of you myself.”  Mark raised his belt and it came whipping down on Barry._

Barry bolted upright in bed, a scream dying in his throat. He took a deep breath and reminded himself he wasn’t in that house anymore, Mark was in jail. Those thoughts, while comforting, didn’t help stop his shaking.

His door opened abruptly and Bruce barged into his room, his eyes immediately locking onto Barry.

“I’m fine Bruce,” Barry said, his voice hovering above a whisper. “It was just a nightmare.”

Bruce’s eyes softened and he gently shut the door, walking over and sitting next to Barry on the bed.

“What-Bruce?” He asked, eyebrows scrunching together.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He froze for a second, thinking it over.

“I- I was back in his house. In Mark’s,” He paused, looking at Bruce. “He was… hurting me again.”

He saw Bruce’s fists clench and then slowly unclench.

“Barry, Mark will never hurt you again. He’s going to be in jail for the rest of his life.”

“I know that it... just felt so _real_ ,” Barry admitted, trying to hold in his tears.

“You will always be safe when I’m here,” Bruce told him softly. “If you ever have a nightmare or a problem, you can always come to me. Or Alfred. Barry, you are in a house with people that love you.”

Barry hadn’t heard that in a very long time. He took a shuddering breath. He let Bruce wrap him in a hug and his tears soaked his shirt.

“Alfred has some hot chocolate ready in the kitchen if you want some,” Bruce said quietly after a while.

“Yeah, I’d like that.” Barry smiled.

**_Before:_ **

Barry didn’t know why he still let this day bother him. It was just a one stupid holiday. Did Father’s Day even count as a holiday? Okay, maybe it did but Barry tried to ignore it every year. It was probably one of the worst holidays of the year for him. His biological dad was dead and Mark was the furthest thing from a parental figure, let alone a dad.

So, he ignored the commercials and signs and the cards he saw everywhere.

It didn’t make it ache any less.

**_After:_ **

Barry smiled as he sat at the dinner table, listening to Bruce tell a story about what happened at work today. Alfred had made his favorite, pasta carbonara, and he and Bruce had managed to convince him to sit down and eat dinner with them for once.

“Needless to say, that employee had to be fired.” Bruce finished his story.

Barry gave a laugh at the story, twirling his pasta around his fork.

“How was your day, Master Bartholomew?” Alfred asked him.

“It was good, I made a perfect score on my chemistry test.”

“Great job Barry,” Bruce told him.

“Thanks, Dad.”

Barry froze as soon as that sentence slipped out of his mouth. Oh God, what had he done? Sure, he had been thinking of Bruce like that for a while, but he hadn’t meant to actually say it. He had just planned on pushing that emotion deep down and never act on it like normal people do.

“You’re welcome son,” Bruce said, the widest smile Barry had ever seen on his face.

He took in Bruce’s words and a grin started stretching across his face, and the warmth that he had been feeling a lot more lately was bubbling up in his chest. He saw Alfred smirk, pleased, out of the corner of his eyes.

Moments later, Barry asked his dad if he could pass the salt.

**_Bonus:_ **

Barry flashed into his seat in the conference room and tugged down his cowl.

“You’re late Barry,” Clark said, though there wasn’t any heat in his voice.

“Sorry, my chemistry teacher let me stay after school to work on a project and I lost track of time.”

“Aww, you lost track of time being a nerd?” Hal teased.

Barry shot Hal a glare who in turn just smirked back.

“You forgot to check in with me Barry.” His dad spoke.

“Sorry Dad, won’t happen again.”

The room dipped into silence for a minute before Bruce said,

“Don’t let it happen again.”

Barry gave him a nod. He missed everyone else’s smiles but didn’t miss Hal’s comment of,

“Bruce, the overprotective dad look suits you very nicely."

**Author's Note:**

> Long time no see guys! Sorry for the long wait, but I've been so busy with school starting and all. But hopefully, now I'll be churning out the stories. I hope y'all enjoyed this installment as much as I enjoyed writing it. Get ready for some big steps to be taken soon, with the introduction of a few iconic characters ;)  
> (also in the before's if you're confused on why only superhero names are used it's because it takes place before they all revealed their identities to one another)


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